With only 17 days left until the release of Rock Band 3, it’s time to start organizing some bands for fun and a little online competition. With that, my Rock Band 2 bands “Dunder Mifflin’s Finest” and “Friendz & Family Plan” haven’t had the much play in recent months, so I’m recruiting new players. Think you got what it takes?

Looking for players in search of gold stars. Expert and Pro players are encouraged, but all levels are welcome.

For me, I’m planning to be on Expert Pro Drums from day 1, swap over to Expert Pro Vocals on occasion, and try my hand at Pro Keys. As far as guitar and bass go, that’s not my bag.

I’m up for some primary players on all instruments, plus some backups. I’ve also sent a message out to my Xbox Live friends list.

Curiously, Harmonix has not yet confirmed that Rock Band 2’s tracks will be fully (or more likely, partially) exportable into Rock Band 3. Typically this feature is one of the earliest known facts about new Rock Band Games, and always comes with a fee. I’m guessing they like to publish this fact as early as possible because of the fact that they charge extra for this feature.

Exactly. All your Rock Band 1 and 2 DLC, your Green Day export, your Rock Band 1 export, all gonna work in Rock Band 3.

“Still in process” is a good thing, it means that the answer is probably not “No”. If you recall, Rock Band 1’s export did not actually include all of the music in the game, notable tracks from Metallica, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and others were not available. This was also the only export thus far that actually copied the tracks from the disc, the other exports were in the form of a large download (at least on XBOX Live). Lego and Green Day’s exports were inclusive of all of the tracks in the game, and also gave you possibility of waiving the fee if you pre-ordered the game. The “Bonus Tracks” from Rock Band 2 are probably safe, as these show up in the set list as DLC and not Rock Band 2 tracks (true for Lego tracks as well).

Since they can’t confirm that an export will exist, I will speculate that it is likely due to licensing issues with the artists themselves, or their labels, and further that we can expect a partial export similar to RB1. It will be a disaster if the great music from Rock Band 2 is orphaned, unable to be exported. Let’s hope that Harmonix is doing everything they can to preserve as much of the Rock Band 2 legacy as they can, and that the cost of this function is going to be similar to what we’ve had to pay in the past.

What tracks from Rock Band 2 would you be willing to give up, assuming we can’t export the entirety of the disc?

We’ll have lots of E3 and Rock Band 3 news to get you through this week. For starters, here is a partial confirmed setlist for Rock Band 3.

Metric – “Combat Baby”

Rilo Kiley – “Portions for Foxes”

Them Crooked Vultures – “Dead End Friends”

The Vines – “Get Free”

The White Stripes – “The Hardest Button to Button”

Phoenix – “Lasso”

Ida Maria – “Oh My God”

Juanes – “Me Enamora”

Jane’s Addiction – “Been Caught Stealing”

Stone Temple Pilots – “Plush”

Smash Mouth – “Walkin’ on the Sun”

Spacehog – “In the Meantime”

Dio – “Rainbow in the Dark”

Huey Lewis and the News – “The Power of Love”

Joan Jett – “I Love Rock and Roll”

Night Ranger – “Sister Christian”

Whitesnake – “Here I Go Again”

The Cure – “Just Like Heaven”

Ozzy Osbourne – “Crazy Train”

Queen – “Bohemian Rhapsody”

Jimi Hendrix – “Crosstown Traffic”

The Doors – “Break On Through”

It’s quite a wide assortment of hits from various decades and genres – even a latin pop song from columbian star Juanes. Music from as recent as November 2009 and as far back as Summer 1966. This confirms about 1/4th of the 83 songs that will be available on the disc.

It has a lot of songs that you would expect from a new Rock Band game, some old favourites return and some very questionable inclusions. Dave Grohl returns with his band Them Crooked Vultures, which makes him the first musician to appear in every Rock Band game. Returning artists include Jane’s Addiction, The White Stripes, Stone Temple Pilots, Ozzy, Queen, Night Ranger and Jimi Hendrix. New artists include indie artists like Metric, Rilo Kiley, Phoenix and Ida Maria, as well as favorites from The Vines, Spacehog, Dio, Huey Lewis, Whitesnake, The Cure and The Doors.

Harmonix has also confirmed that all previous DLC will be forward compatible, for the core instruments only. If you are a drummer playing in Pro mode, you should also find that the appropriate notes have been mapped to the cymbals for your DLC music as well – apparently this has always been included in the charting, and they are now able to incorporate it into Rock Band 3, which is an awesome bonus for us drummers. Keyboards and Vocal harmonies will not be automatically updated in the game, which is unfortunate if you were planning on playing the keyboard solo for “Tom Sawyer” or the intro to “Don’t Stop Believin'” on the new keyboard controller. That opens the door to re-issuing some popular DLC with keyboard and harmony support, although Harmonix wants to avoid charging customers twice for the same song. Going forward, once Rock Band 3 is released, future DLC will not be able to be played in any of the previous titles (Rock Band 1 and 2, Lego:RB).

Another long awaited feature is the setlist filtering system, which will allow players to display their massive songlists with greater ease, save individual setlists and even share those setlists with friends via the game or on Rockband.com. Filters (like decade, location, difficulty, score, genre, etc) can be combined with each other (so you can quickly see all your 80’s metal) and songs that you do not wish to play can be hidden from the view. Finally a built-in song recommendation system will offer suggestions based on your playing preferences, but whether these suggestions are from your own collection or from the music store remains to be seen.

Harmonix has revealed a small landslide of Rock Band 3 details. Here is the first official trailer featuring music from the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Them Crooked Vultures and The Cure. Tracklist, Instruments, Gameplay and more details coming up!